ISIS Offensive

The 2014 Northern Iraq Offensive, also called the ISIS Offensive, was a major offensive launched in June 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a revolutionary organization that sought to overthrow the sectarian government of President Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq. By the end of June, the "Islamic State" caliphate was proclaimed, and not only had the insurgents conquered much of western and northern Iraq, but the Kurdish Peshmerga took over part of Mosul as well as Kirkuk and most of northern Iraq.

Background
In 2006, following the execution of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by a new Iraqi government (installed by the United States in 2003 during the Iraq War), Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani became the new President of Iraq, while Shi'a politician Nouri al-Maliki became the new Prime Minister. Saddam Hussein was one of the Sunni minority who later took control of the government and introduced a Sunni sectarian movement, and after the US occupation, the several oppressed groups became the new leaders. The Sunnis of Iraq were opposed to the new sectarian government, as they had lost their place in ruling the country.

This is perhaps the main factor of how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a fundamentalist Islamic movement founded by the deranged Jordanian killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, took control of most of northern Iraq within a month. In 2010, the mujahideen fighter Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took over the organization (then called "The Islamic State of Iraq") after the death of his predecessor, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and renamed it "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" after the group began to fight in the Syrian Civil War alongside the Free Syrian Army. With a base in Aleppo, a major city of Syria, ISIS became a powerful movement in Syria, and in June 2014, as discontent against the Shi'a-dominated government of al-Maliki simmered, ISIS launched an offensive.

War
In January 2014, clashes in al-Anbar in Anbar Province left several Iraqi soldiers and civilians dead. This warned Iraq of the capabilities of the Iraqi rebels, but Prime Minister al-Maliki failed to mobilize a response. On 5 June 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria began their offensive to claim all of northern Iraq. That day, they blew up the police station in the city of Samarra and captured the city, which was the hometown of al-Baghdadi.

A day later, ISIS attacked Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul in the north. The Iraqi people of the city had electricity for only two to three hours a day before the government would shut it off, and the people were divided between Sunnis, Shi'ites, Kurds, and Christians. Due to either government orders, part of a plan, or cowardice, the Iraqi Army forces defending Mosul stripped themselves of their uniforms and equipment and fled at the first sight of insurgents. However, they had good reason to fear the insurgents; reports of mass executions against captured Iraqi Army soldiers surfaced that day. The ISIS troops took control of the city, and many people fled in horror. However, the new administration introduced by the insurgents was harmonious. The ISIS rulers of half of Mosul gave free electricity to all homes and forbade the robbing of people or government buildings, and threatened to punish those who disturbed society. Some people were relieved that they had finally gained the freedoms that they wanted, such as being paid for working and getting free electricity and homes.

However, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were not the only group to take over lands from the Iraqi government. The same day, the Peshmerga army of Iraqi Kurdistan took over the city of Kirkuk in the north and occupied the other half of Mosul, setting up several military checkpoints along the road. They did not fight the rebels, as the rebels knew that they already fought the Iraqi government, and that they did not need to fight the Kurds, with whom they shared a common enemy.

Soon, the ISIS offensive overran the city of Baiji, which held Iraq's largest oil refinery, cutting off Iraq's biggest export and its most expensive export. On 27 June 2014, having taken over the Iraqi border with Jordan and having created an informal border with the Kurds, al-Bakr proclaimed himself the Caliph of "The Islamic State".